Faces of Death (1978)

A collection of death scenes, ranging from TV-material to home-made super-8 movies The common factor is death by some means.

Director:

John Alan Schwartz

Writer:

John Alan Schwartz

Stars:

Michael Carr, Samuel Berkowitz, Mary Ellen Brighton

Cast

Credited cast:
Michael Carr	...	Dr. Francis B. Gröss
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Samuel Berkowitz	...	Himself; Cryogenics patient
Mary Ellen Brighton	...	Herself; suicide victim shown jumping out of a window
Thomas Noguchi	...	Himself

Storyline

A 'mockumentary' hosted by Dr. Francis B. Gross, a coroner. He is trying to show you the different 'faces' of people while dying. There are faked scenes of people getting killed intermixed with footage of real accidents. There are executions by decapitation (in an unknown Arab country) and the electric chair. One scene shows a group of tourists in Egypt smashing a monkey's head while still alive and eating its brains. There are shots of animals eating people and satanic orgies using dead bodies. There is a segment that deals with an alligator that accidentally entered 'residential' waters. The local warden goes in his boat to get the crocodile back into the sea when he accidentally falls over and becomes gator bait. The film ends with newsreel footage of people jumping off buildings and major accidents.

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Plot Keywords:

death | execution | brain | mockumentary | alligator | 

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Taglines:

Banned in 46 Countries!

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Genres:

Documentary | Horror

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Gorgon Video

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

10 November 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Original Faces of Death

Filming Locations:

Guanajuato, Mexico

Box Office

Budget:

$450,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

F.O.D. Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

One sequence involves cryogenic patient Samuel Berkowitz, who was frozen in July 1978 and stored in northern California. The relatives who were funding the suspension began to lose interest and/or wherewithal, an offer was made to continue the suspension as a neuro (head-only) free of charge, but it was turned down. Instead in October 1983 they had Berkowitz thawed, submerged in formaldehyde, given a proper funeral and buried. No attempt was made specifically to preserve the brain.

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Goofs

Numerous continuity and logic errors, casting doubt on the validity of the movie's claim to be authentic.

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Quotes

Dr. Francis B. Gröss: Do the animals know they are going to die? The men who kill them claim they don't. But when the machinery begins to rumble and the conveyor belts start to roll, sounds that expedite death are heard by animal and man alike.

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Crazy Credits

At the end of the film, the credits say "Special thanks to the mummies of Guanajuato, Mexico"

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Connections

Referenced in Alone in the Dark (2005)

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Soundtracks

"Life"
Music by Gene Kauer
Lyrics by Jerry Winn
Sung by Bruce Scott

User Reviews

'The country of Africa'?

First of all, yes, some of these scenes are REAL, and yes some are obviously FAKE. But of the real scenes of death/ tribes hunting and killing in Africa/ autopsies/ cryogenic freezing are mostly made to look like a documentary. The fake ... er, excuse me, 'reenacted' scenes are less convincing: as said here in earlier reviews, complete with multiple camera angles and editing etc. are not necessary, detract from the overall effect, and hurt this movie's credibility.

The scene involving an alligator attack featuring an interviewer from "channel 9" is obviously fake: No other identification is given as far as, let's say, "Channel 9 News in Miami" or a station id, something like "WXXX Channel 9 News". It doesn't display the interviewer's name or the names of the people he's interviewing, and they keep editing away from the actual gator attack.

The portions of the movie dealing with real slaughterhouses, cryogenic freezing and rioting, again, are fairly graphic, but again they're done in a documentary type of way, not trying to be a splatter movie like some of this movie's ripoffs ("Traces of Death" immediately comes to mind)

This isn't for those with a weak stomach, but watch it in the same frame of mind you would watch "National Geographic" on safari in Africa or something like that and it doesn't seem as terrible as some have said. (Note to the producers: in one scene the narrator refers to 'the country of Africa' - Africa is not a country it's a continent)

*** out of ****